Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (40 page)

Antefalken himself, would never be caught living in such a location.  Caves seemed to be a real turn-off for women.  Something deep down inside, going back to the ' drag them by the hair' caveman days that just seemed to put the nix on romance for most women, Antefalken presumed.  Palatial buildings with silks and other soft cloths, plus lots of jewels, seemed to work much better.

By this point, Antefalken had reached the main area of the cave.  The furnishings weren't much, mostly hand carved, literally.  Stylistically he'd seen better, but O.K. for a first try.  The chair and table were functional, the bookshelves too, although empty.  No real sign of any Astlanian materials; either this Tom wasn't able to do physical transport or hadn't figured out how yet.  Not surprising, not many demons could.  The majority of fours could manage something though, maybe not much, but at least small things. 

Antefalken drew in a breath through his nose, preparing for a sigh. 
Hmm,
  Antefalken thought.  He'd almost missed something. That was the annoying part about not breathing.  If you didn't breath regularly you didn't smell things.  From his just completed whiff, he detected a rather unusual scent.  Something a little out of the ordinary from the run of the mill sulfur, brimstone and smoky smell of the Abyss.  It was a slightly sweet, slightly sour odor. 

Perspiration, he decided.  This was most intriguing.  Demons
, naturally, did not sweat, unless they worked rather hard at it.  More effort than it was worth by all accounts.  Except during sex, he reminded himself.  Then it was completely appropriate and in fact considered rude in some parts if you didn't.  However, all of this was beside the point, he definitely smelled perspiration, and unless he missed his guess, rather recent and rather human.

Human perspiration in the Abyss, remarkable really.  Not remarkable that a human would sweat of course, it was a bit on the warm side even in this cool cave, no, it was remarkable that a human had been in the cave recently at all.  In fact, unless he missed his guess, as he repeatedly sniffed around the room, there seemed to be two distinctly different patterns.  Male and female it seemed.  While he didn't use his sense of smell often, Antefalken had to admit that it was at least as good as his other demonic senses. 

Now, how would this demon have gotten two humans into this cave?  Unless the humans came by themselves, of their own free will, which was most unlikely, the demon must have brought them.  That seemed to squash his theory that this Tom didn't know material transport.  Given that the humans were sweating, they must have come bodily to the Abyss.  Bodily meant that he'd used an Abyssal Gate of some form or the other, and one large enough to drag anything through.

The question was, if the demon could do that, why not bring some decent furniture?  Antefalken peered around again at the rather shoddy cave.  Unless, of course, all this was a front.  Perhaps some higher up demon slumming it for some scheme?  Pretending to be a novitiate demon?  Very possible, Antefalken thought to himself, stroking his chin as he paced around the room.  While admittedly, it had only been a moment ago he'd been chiding the demon on not knowing any matter transport, safely transporting multiple humans implied a bit too good of control for a novice.

It was a lovely puzzle, certainly.  Antefalken would love to talk to this Tom fellow.  Find out for sure what the guy did and did not know.  Unless the man were exceedingly clever, Antefalken felt certain he'd be able to place this Tom in the overall scheme of things.  This story of Boggy's, insisting that Tom was only 16 or so, didn't seem to hold water.  While the cave would support this hypothesis; a teenager undergoing a shock bigger than puberty, suddenly turning around and transporting humans back and forth to the Abyss and messing around in big league politics in less than a month's time of being a demon just didn't ring true.

Damien would certainly love this.  Antefalken wished he had some form of prescience so he could scan the cave to get more information, but no such luck.  He carefully inspected the rest of the cave with all his normal senses, looking for any
other clues.  He found no others unfortunately.  He decided he'd just have to be happy with what he had.  He'd also have to come back later in the hope of catching Tom at home.

~

Edwyrd stood by the same rail on the forecastle at which he'd met Maelen.  He was gazing up at the stars in the night sky.  He breathed the salt air in through his nose and mouth in large, deep breaths.  It had only been an hour ago that he'd realized that he hadn't been breathing.  He'd have to be more careful about that.  As in his true form, no, he corrected himself, as in his demon form, the Edwyrd form didn't need to breathe and so out of recent habit, didn't, except to talk.  He'd realized that that could be dangerous if anybody happened to notice.

That Maelen
fellow would probably be the one to notice also.  The man seemed just a little bit too observant.  The way he looked at Edwyrd made him nervous, as if the man were trying to see right through him.  Edwyrd hoped the man couldn't read minds.  Rupert had hinted that some animages could.  He was a goner if the man could.

Actually, between trying to avoid Maelen and trying to avoid expanding back into demon form and ripping his clothes to shreds, Edwyrd didn't know how he'd made it through the afternoon.  It was for that reason he stood up on the deck, trying to relax.  Relax as much as possible and not shift back, that was.  He'd had to plead seasickness to avoid having to eat about an hour ago, and told people he needed fresh air.

Actually, he should have thought about the food thing earlier.  He hadn't had to eat when he was Tom, and Edwyrd's body didn't seem to get hungry either.  Having never eaten in Astlan at all, he wasn't sure what would happen if he did.  He hoped he had some sort of normal internal organs, but he wasn't sure.  Boggy had indicated that demons could eat, drink or breath, but Tom had never tried.  Breathing seemed to work.  As far as he could tell he had lungs, his chest expanded when he inhaled  What bothered him was that when he'd fought the dragon, he'd gotten ripped apart pretty good, but he didn't recall seeing any real internal structure or organs in his demon body.

He assumed he had normal plumbing internally and that everything worked, but he hadn't seen any evidence so far.  He cursed himself for not taking a moment of privacy to explore this before.  Presumably, if he ate stuff, it would be processed in the normal manner. Again it came down to the close quarters of the ship, he had to live under real close scrutiny.  Eventually he'd have to eat, and excrete,  just like he had to keep remembering to breath.  If he didn't, people would surely catch on.  All these annoying little details humans had to put up with. Demonic life certainly was simpler.

Edwyrd nearly jumped out of his skin, literally, when a hand rested on his shoulder. He turned his head to find  Maelen having come up behind him.  Cornered!  He hadn't even heard or sensed the man, he couldn't believe his worthless human senses were that bad, but apparently they were.  He'd really have to work on that somehow.  The man had come all the way across the deck and up the ladder beside him and taken him completely unaware!

"Good evening, Tom."  Maelen said quietly with a smile.  It took Edwyrd a second to realize what bothered him about Maelen's greeting, and then he did a double take.  "Uhm, I'm sorry, but my name is Edwyrd."  Edwyrd protested, looking the kindly smiling man in the eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my mistake.  Somehow I just thought the name Tom sounded better on you.  Actually Tom is a rather unusual name, I'm not sure where I came up with it."  Edwyrd wasn't sure he believed the man.  In fact he was pretty sure he didn't.

"Uh, that's...O.K.  It happens some time."  Edwyrd didn't really know how to recover.

"You know, I suppose," Maelen said almost conversationally as he looked out over the dark expanse of the ocean, "that you are something of a puzzle to me."

"Really?  Me a puzzle?"  Great! thought Edwyrd, what was he going to do if the man started yelling 'Demon!' all over the place.

"Yes, when I look at you, I see a young man who may be what he claims, a journeyman animage who manages to get by as best he can."  Maelen glanced sideways to judge Edwyrd's reaction in the dark.  Edwyrd hoped the man couldn't see too much of his expression. 

"However, when I Look at you, I see so much Animus and Mana, all tied up into one being, that there is no way I can believe you.  Surely, I say to myself, he must be a relatively powerful practitioner, possibly disguising himself, or else he's under some major enchantment." Maelen  paused at this, "but not a wizardly enchantment, I don't detect that.  So, what? I ask myself, is he hiding?"

Edwyrd was feeling rather tense at this point.  He didn't know how to respond.  The guy was obviously capable of seeing through him.  Just how far the man could see, was unclear.  What the man would do with his knowledge was even more unclear.  Maelen was staring out to sea as he continued.

"However," and the old man paused for dramatic effect, "when I See you, I see a confused young man who is in over his head.  A young man lost and far from home, trying to get by as best he can.  A good young man."  At this point Maelen was once again looking over his shoulder and into Edwyrd's eyes.  Somehow finding them unerringly in the dark.

"It's an interesting dichotomy, really."  The man remarked, as if to himself.  "Which do I believe?  I've trusted both for almost all my life."  He turned his head away again, putting his hands on the rail in front of him to lean on.  "The other thing I see are demons."

"Demons?"  Edwyrd echoed weakly.

"Yes, demons." Maelen glanced back over his shoulder again.  "Several demons, some of them extremely powerful.  Past or future, I don't know for sure which, but I suspect both.

"Now, of course," Maelen went on in a tone similar to a lecturer, "this would explain why you are in over your head.  Any young man mixing with any type of demon is in over his head.  Especially
when mixing with ones this powerful."

Edwyrd gave a small mental sigh, the man suspected him of something.  Not the truth, however, he hadn't gotten that far yet.  Was there any
way he could divert the man that wouldn't make him more suspicious?  He couldn't think of any.  What exactly was the man saying with the funny emphasis on 'see' and 'look'  was he some sort of psychic?  Rupert had admitted that these animages might be able to do such things.

Maelen stood up suddenly, placing both hands on Edwyrd's shoulders.  "I know you're not ready now, but if you should need someone to talk to...I am available.  At least for the duration of the journey."  Maelen paused, then tilted his head with a small quirk of his mouth, and added more hesitantly, "And maybe again in the not too distant future."

He removed his hands from Edwyrd's shoulders and stood up straight.  "Well good night Tom.  I hope you have pleasant dreams."  He nodded with a smile and then walked fairly briskly back to the ladder and then down.

Edwyrd watched him go with a strange feeling inside.  He didn't know what to think.  He slowly turned back to the sea, placing his hands upon the rail.  He took a deep breath to clear his mind and watched the starlight and the just emerging moonlight dance along the waves.

Astrology and the Elements

Curriculum Vitae: College of Wizardry

University of the Council States

As any good wizard will tell you, there are five elements:  Fire, Earth, Water, Air, and Spirit.  Fire and Water naturally oppose each other, as do Air and Earth, while Spirit opposes itself.  Moreover, as the druids explain, there are positive and negative manifestations of all things, including the elements, themselves.  The positive aspect of an element is the active, assertive side of the element, the way the element makes its impact on the world at large.  The negative aspect is the receptive, passive side of the element, the way the element is acted upon by the world.

Taking these two factors into consideration; it becomes clear that there must be ten element-manifestation combinations thus there are ten astrological signs in Astlan.  Each has an element and embodies either the positive or the negative manifestation of its particular element.

"Of course there are ten signs," the wizards reiterate.  "Five elements plus three oppositions (fire-water, air-earth, spirit-spirit) plus two manifestations of each element equals ten."  They continue, "ideally, there would be a prime number of signs, but ten is the sum of three primes and is a pyramid number, since 10 = 1+2+3+4."

The Astrological Signs of the Astlanian Calendar

Description of the Astrological Signs

Infernos
-- Hotheaded, outgoing, boisterous, talented, tireless, eloquent, irritable, and mostly combustible:  these are the watchwords of the sign of The Phoenix people.  Many are skilled artisans due more to pure talent than inspiration of design.  Because they often get into scrapes, Infernos individuals frequently have to start over several times in life, but like the legendary phoenix, they always rebound.

Chrysos
--  Chrysos influences people in a much more subtle way than its positive earthen counterpart, Paleos.  Negative earth people are generally calm, unassuming individuals with a knack for using patience to achieve the impossible.  Rockworm people are imminently trustworthy, reliable, and honest, or at least maintain such a reputation.

Hydros
-- Positive water's influence makes Hydros individuals skillful entertainers, storytellers, swindlers, salesmen, and public figures.  Many of Astlan's most famous bards, dancers, crooks, and monarchs were born under the sign of The Hydra.  In the same way that the hydra has many heads, Hydros people can hold many opinions and morals at once and can flow like water to apply the one most appropriate at a given moment.

Vacuos
-- This is the sign of the wise cleric, the ancient druid, the solitary sage, the individual who knows much but says little.  If there is a secret to be discovered, a riddle to be solved, or a code to be broken, a person born under the sign of The Manticore can handle the conundrum quite adroitly.

Animos
-- This is the most extreme of all the signs.  Those under the influence of The Titan seem to do everything by sheer willpower and have a talent for inspiring others to do the same.  Animos people often overestimate their capabilities, but still accomplish what they set out to do, again through force of will.

Fluos
-- Just like their symbol, the Remora, these people frequently intend to help others, but are often misunderstood.  Not as extreme as their Hydros counterparts, Waterfall individuals take a more balanced approach to life.  They make excellent sorcerers and seers and seem to know almost as much as Vacuos people.  Fluos individuals usually specialize in one profession and rise to the tops of their fields due to their calm, patient natures.

Arios
-- Where Vacuos works in a subtle manner, Arios takes a more dynamic approach.  The Gryphon seeks knowledge frenetically and many adventuring sages, spell-seeking wizards, and fanatical clerics fill the Arios roster.  Ironically, Arios people strive to stamp out ignorance and backward thinking, while they, themselves, are usually quite opinionated.

Moltos
-- Moltos is the negative fire, the flame that burns slowly, that tempers, that warms.  People born under this influence make excellent healers, artisans, and chroniclers.  They are usually generous (though some are more generous with other people's things than with their own) and they are forgiving (sometimes forgiving their own faults too readily).

Paleos
-- Paleos people make excellent mercenaries, workers, and friends.  They are rugged individuals and many enjoy strong ale and ribald stories.  Slow to anger, but even slower to forgive, those born under the influence of The Gargoyle are steadfast allies and relentless enemies.

Necros
-- These are quiet, intelligent, untiring people who usually mind their own business and expect others to do the same.  They are often misunderstood, as is their sign:  negative spirit is a necessary part of the cycle, but unenlightened souls see Necros only as the death sign.